Learning from Our 'Mistaks'

One night I was driving alone. It was late, and I was really getting tired. I tried all the usual things. I turned up the radio. I rolled down the window. I started singing. Then I tried my last resort, I started slapping myself. Nothing seemed to work.

I pulled off the interstate at an exit. I went in to the restroom. I washed my face with a paper towel, and then wet another one to take with me. I thought that it might help me stay awake. It wasn't until I was coming out of the bathroom, as I looked at the door, that I realized that I had gone in to the women's restroom. That could have been disastrous.

Now that you have heard my story, you can understand why I always check the door of a public restroom several times before I go in.

We can learn from our mistakes. Sometimes there is a fine line between conviction and condemnation. We feel so terrible when we make mistakes. The good news is that God still loves us. He wants us to learn from our mistakes, not just feel bad about them.

Some of my most valuable life lessons have come from making mistakes. It is painful at the time, but leaves an impression on you, that you won't forget.

I try to stop and greet people, even when I am in a hurry now. Why? One time I was going to visit someone in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital. He had fallen off of a roof. I sped past a couple from our church who was in the waiting room. I hurried by them and said a brief hello. After I visited the gentleman in ICU, I quickly passed this same couple on my way out, and said, "Seeya."

I received a phone call later, from the wife who was very hurt. I didn't realize, nor did I slow down enough to find out, that her husband had had a suspected heart attack. I felt awful. Although that sick feeling stayed with me for a few days, the pain that I remember from that event helps me slow down enough to visit with and talk with folks even when I'm in a hurry.

Mistakes can be painful, but it's comforting to know that God doesn't condemn us and wants us to learn from our mistakes.

God wants us to learn from our mistakes!

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. ... And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:1; Romans 8:28).

But, we have to be willing to learn from them!

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